Electronic Arts (EA) bled USD $3.1 billion (£2.3 billion) in stock value at the markets over the week, as the company scaled down its controversial loot-crate system deployed in "Star Wars: Battlefront II." The company is fighting a PR debacle as gamers complain of terrible pricing of the base-game, DLC, and an aggressive loot-crate system that's drawing the attention of government regulators around the world, who are threatening to impose gambling regulations against the game.

The concept of loot-crate is simple. You pay a seemingly small amount of money for a "mystery box" containing either something great (like weapon-attachments), or something of no tangible impact on gameplay (like skins). You're incentivized to buy more loot-crates in hope that you'll get something better. This becomes a gamble. In 2016, EA earned over $800 million in profits selling loot-crates among other micro-transactions, across various game franchises, such as Battlefield and Need for Speed. With EA scaling down several of its ancillary revenue models for the game, the studio's stock bled 8.5 percent month-to-date. Drew Crum, an analyst with investment firm Stifel also attributes underwhelming Black Friday sales of the game to EA's bear-hug.

the54thvoid said:I may be wrong but the share price falling means investors DONT like that loot crates are gone for now. Investors and stock prices have nothing to do with the 'ethical' value. Price dropped because shareholders sold stocks because loot crates were good for them.
Generally, a drop in share price means investors think the company made a bad move.

Possibly. I bet most of EAs shares are held in mutual funds, so I doubt those shareholders care how EA makes their games. The company took a huge backlash from buyers, but more importantly, it caught the attention of regulators. That is likely why they dropped the stock, as they know EA is going to be a liability while they deal with the potential legal problems they just made. EA banked its future on a bad business practice, and since buyers finally stood up and a big title flopped, it’s going to be a hard candy Christmas at EA. EA gave the speculators a lot to worry about.

the54thvoid said:I may be wrong but the share price falling means investors DONT like that loot crates are gone for now. Investors and stock prices have nothing to do with the 'ethical' value. Price dropped because shareholders sold stocks because loot crates were good for them.
Generally, a drop in share price means investors think the company made a bad move.

Exactly and this was followed by even more investors pulling out because of fear of losing even more. All this still has nothing to do with them "listening to people".

Bioware of old and the current EA lapdog Bioware only have the name in common. If Anthem fails (and it will considering it's a loot driven game published by EA), Bioware will end up just like Visceral, and the dozen before them.

JackOne said:Learn from it, go back to being a decent company or go down for good.

I can't name one time EA was "a decent company." There's nothing to "go back to."

[LEFT]

techy1 said:good, not that I care about Battlefront... but I am damn sure every game developer is watching this and thinking: "hmm... EA got a bit too greedy and got backlash, I wonder how this will play out... if this will quiet down - maybe we also can get away with a more "loot" in future?"... I hope this brings answer to all of them (for this moment)

I think the worst that will happen is ESRB/PEGI being required to add "Gambling" to games that have loot boxes.

There may be a few countries that may go full ban on that content but I'm not sure which.[/LEFT]

the54thvoid said:I may be wrong but the share price falling means investors DONT like that loot crates are gone for now. Investors and stock prices have nothing to do with the 'ethical' value. Price dropped because shareholders sold stocks because loot crates were good for them.
Generally, a drop in share price means investors think the company made a bad move.

Not exactly. The drop in stock price means that investers are concerned that EA isn't going to make money. When you botch a major product launch, investors tend to leave. It isn't that investors want loot crates, it is the fact that EA botched a major product release.

This isn't about the investers listening to the people, they don't give a shit, it is about EA losing $3 Billion because they put out a product that people didn't want to buy because EA got too greedy, and because of backlash there was poor sales of a major product. The investers leaving is just a by-product of the backlash, but it is a by-product that EA is more likely to recognize.

Rockstar needs to get slapped down as well, the whole single player updates are dead since they found their cash cow.

Or, they need to open up the game so modders can create more content. It's a no win position currently, either you have to play online with random people that prevent you from leveling up unless you want to pay for shark cards, and hope you make enough to move up, or grind away for hundreds of hours to reach the same level as pay to play idiots. I'm not a fan of either idea honestly.